Tender Sugar
by Lady Pickles
Summary: One-shot requested by Athena. 2010.


Well, this is a bit late in coming, but better late than never, aye?! (actually it's not even due till April 12th, but this is late for me. :B) Anyways, so this is a one-shot for my good friend Athena, or Ramen as some of you know her. I'm not a lovey-dovey type of person, (if you've even bothered to read the other works, you'd know this by now. If I'm lovey-dovey, it comes at a price).

**Full Summery:**  
Roxas is a boy with a seemingly over active imagination, where a "demon" from another realm visits him at night. Except the bruises remain after the demon has gone. Roxas knows he is real and does exist but no one else believes him, and eventually take his father, then brother away.

And yet the bruises remain...

**DISCLAIMER: **Don't own Kingdom Hearts, or the music, yadda, yadda, we know all this. Bleh.

**NOTES:** Please review. I likey the reviews. Also, I'm still working on the LAD chapter, it's about... nerrrr, 23 percent done? Meh. Just moved to Wyoming people. (yes, I'm back here. Rather depressing, really.) Also, Athena is trying to give me inspiration for Hellrider and LAD, and so I'll get off my ass sooner or later. (still need to get GED and shit together. NURG.)

Well, till next time!  
Lady Pickles

**xXx**

_"Not again, Not again, Not again  
From this dream I can't wake  
What is real, What is real, What is real  
It's getting hard for me to take  
What I need, What I need, What I need  
A little something I rely on  
And the white sugar gently hides me  
Oh, The sweet sugar saves me  
From the room that confines me."_

**Tender Sugar  
**_a one-shot XigRox for Athena_

The night bloomed, unfurling from the day, the moon rising up as the town began to calm down. Lights lit up, and streets grew empty, as adults and children alike were in their homes, having dinner, or watching television. Some playing video games, and others were bent over desks, working on homework or stuff from the office. Someone skipped by, singing a happy tune, past an older home, that had a neat lawn, the oh-so-perfect, yet clearly natural rock path from the driveway led to the front door, which was a rich mahogany. Just past the door was a hall that led in three paths. The kitchen, the living room, and then the stairs. Up the long stairs, there was a second floor. From there, a man walked from his room, with a tooth brush hanging from his mouth, knocking on a door at the very end of the hall. He continued brushing his teeth as he waited, before knocking again. "Roxas!"

It was a moment, before the small boy popped his head out, looking up at the man, blinking slowly. "Yes?" He asked, tilting his head, frowning a bit.

"You ready for bed?" The man looked down at his foster child who nodded in confirmation. "Good. Now sleep. And don't lie to us again." He said before patting the boy's head and turning to walk away as Roxas stood there, before shutting the door. Swallowing, he turned to look up the steps to the attic, where his room resides, and slowly he made his way up there, one step after another. Swallowing, he peeked around, and found nothing. Moving across the wooden flooring, he slid into his cold sheets, tugging them up around his chin, frowning. He heard the bell tower in the center of the town chime eight. His eyes darted around the room. Four more hours. Clenching his hands in the sheet, he pulled his legs up a bit, before squeezing his eyes shut. "No...." He whimpered, keeping close to his bed, and swallowing. The clock ticked, and time seemed to go faster, speeding through to nine. He paced the room, as he felt the earth spin below him, his head pounding as he pressed a hand to it, and he hiccuped, before turning to see it was ten. His eyes nearly watered, and he crouched, rocking back and forth in the corner of his room.

"No more. No more. No more." He could feel the doom coming, like a slug sliding down his back. It sent shivers over his body, making him start to sob uncontrollably.

Then it was eleven.

He tugged at his hair, pressed his face to the window, opened it, tried to climb out, and found the ground below was too far. He was trapped. Turning he moved to try and go to the stairs, but a choking air surrounded him, and just as he reached the top steps, the clock chimed midnight. He turned over his shoulder to see all the stars wink out, the time slow to a stop with a last tick, and the final bell rang. He frowned, feeling the static, before turning to trot down the stairs and open the door to go find the adults.

On the otherside of the door was a man, but not the man he wanted. The man was all, broad shouldered, his long black hair streaked with silver, and an eye-patch slung over one eye. His remaining one was black and it glittered ominously in the night.

"Well, well, little Roxy... where are you going?" He asked with a grin, stepping in. Roxas took a step back, and he took another. Like a backwards dance, he chased the boy up the steps, and against the wall opposite of the stairs, his hands clasped behind his back, bending a bit to grin fangs at the boy. "Why do you run from me?"

Roxas looked up to him with enormous blue eyes and he swallowed, before whimpering. "You lied..."

"Oh? How so." Came the beguiling smile that first got the whole mess started.

"You lied! You said I'd never be alone, if I trust you!" He whispered, flinching from the hand that reached up to cup his face.

"But are you alone? I'm here now, aren't I?"

"No! They took my dad away! Sora! They took them all! I've... I've never felt so-so lonely and... and..." He felt the tears well up again, having thought the sobbing from prior would be enough as the demon clicked his tongue.

"Oh, my poor, poor little incubus." He whispered, picking Roxas up and stepping over to the bed to lay the boy out. "Don't you know they were only in the way? They weren't really your family anyways. How many times must I tell you?" He whispered, leaning in to press their foreheads together, looking down at him with a crooked, cocky smile. "We're family now." He breathed on the boy's forehead, lighting up the triangle there, that was carved in. One that only appeared when the demon blew on it.

"But if we are, why do you leave me all the time?" He asked, looking up to him. "Why Xigbar?"

The demon gave him a pitying smile, and stroked a soft cheek, "I can't be in the human plane long, my little Roxas. But..." He started when he saw Roxas about to cry. "You can come with me."

He looked up to him, and blinked, eyes enormous. "Truly?"

"Yes, my little incubus. But before you do, there's a rite that must be preformed."

Over the course of the next several days, Roxas gathered all that he was told that was needed. Candles, incense sticks, silk sheets he took from a neighbor. A skull he dug up, washed and polished. He found a pure silver dagger in one of the stores, and it took little convincing of the counter man to sell it to him. Getting tarot cards, and runes, he also bought blessed chalk. He stored the items in his closet, finding the last ingredients were the hardest. Two pure crystal goblets, and red wine. He went to some boys from school's homes, with a backpack, and found some goblets, but the wine was proving harder to find.

On the eve of the day Xigbar said he'd return, his foster mother was throwing a party, and there... there on the counter, he found it. Two large bottles of red wine. Waiting for the opportune moment, when his foster mother was speaking with her husband, he took a bottle, and skipped up the steps, hiding it in his closet, along with everything else. When the adults inspected his room for the missing bottle, they never found it, and concluded she'd just left it.

"Very nice...." Xigbar said, as he stepped from the portal, the next night, the full moon round and heavy with light. Through the window he saw the silver light mix with the ambient glow from the candles, the room heavy with incense. Spices tingling the nasal orifice. He saw that the bed had been pushed to the middle of the room like asked, with silken sheets, right over the pentagram drawn in chalk onto the floor. The tarot cards set about the room with runes over the door. Next to the bed was the nightstand with the opened bottle of wine, the two goblets, and the skull. He grinned. "I've taught you well."

"I learn well." Roxas replied, having been the last piece to the perfect picture in Xigbar's mind. The slender body laying on the red silk, nude. He looked up perfect, long legs, to a slender body, the bruising and marks all gone, and his hair like spun gold against such crimson cloth. He looked to the blue eyes and smiled.

"My little incubus." He whispered, moving over and shedding his vest as he did, sliding up to the offering before him, taking one hand and kissing the wrist slowly. Roxas swallowed, looking up to him, shivering. It wasn't like it wasn't the first time, with this demon, but right now, with all the smells and the heady aroma's, he felt like his pulse was beginning to race wildly, and he scooted up to touch Xigbar's cheek with his own.

Xigbar smiled in response, turning to nibble on his cheek, his other hand sliding around to press Roxas to his chest, and he nearly purred at the slender body against his. Burning skin scalded him, and his hand slipped down to cup the giving bottom. "After tonight... we'll never be parted again." He whispered, as he dipped his head in to kiss him, before pulling back, and sliding Roxas up into a sitting position. The two sat there facing one another, Xigbar taking in the heated cheeks of Roxas' face, and stroking his hair back, before leaning over to take the wine and pour it into the two goblets. Having him drink from one, he turned to take a swallow from his others. It only took the half of the goblet to bring out the dull shine in Roxas' eyes. Just the thing he needed. Pouring what was left of Roxas' wine into his, he took his own wrist and slid the blade across it, to let the blood pool into it, looking up at Roxas, smirking. "Your turn, little Roxy." He whispered, handing the blade to the boy, after licking it clean.

Roxas looked at it and he swallowed. "I... I dunno...."

"Roxas... you'll finally be with me always. Touch the blade to your wrist." He murmured, stroking Roxas' hair as he looked at him longingly. The boy looked up to him, and then wobbled the blade a bit,

"I....." He closed his eyes, and opened them to find Xigbar leaning in and kissing him, nuzzling their noses together, as Roxas smiled weakly wrapping his arms around him and dropping the blade, his face red from the wine, as he felt a large hand slide down one leg, pulling him close.

"I love you little incubus. Won't you come home with me? What do you say?"

**xXx**

The following morning, Robert woke to a thick smell in the air, as he coughed. There was black smoke filling the room, and he waved his hand before him, shaking his wife. "Tessa, TESSA, get up! Get outside now!" He said to her, as she was roused with a groan, before hacking, as she rolled off the bed, looking around, eyes red from the ash. "I'll go grab Roxas. Just get outside!" He stayed till she was down the stairs, turning to head for the attic. It was even thicker there, and he shook with the effort it took, but the moment his hand touched the knob, it burned and he screamed, shaking his hand. He kicked at the door, yelling Roxas' name over and over, but to no avail, there was no answer.

Firemen came moments later trying to drag him out as he screamed over and over that his son was in the attic. They brought and ax and hacked at the door till it caved in, and they ran up, Robert on their tails. What he saw would keep him silent and terrified for the rest of his life.

The wine bottle was on the floor, leaking out, blood stained, darkening the sheets. Roxas lay on the bed nude, with blood sprayed over his body. It drained from his wrists, and some fell from his blood stained lips, the goblet in one hand. His skin had an ashen color to it, and on his forehead was carved a triangle.

When the fire was finished, only one room was saved. Roxas'. But no one could touch it, or move any of the objects, so it became a tomb for the boy, and a house was built over it. Every ten years, on a full moon, the new tenant of the house would see a blond boy walking through there, calling out to someone. "Xigbar, Xigbar..." He'd cry out, always searching always lonely. His eyes would be as blue as an ocean, and filled with just as many tears. He'd moan in pain as his spirit faded with the rising of the sun.

And five years later would be another spirit, tall and strong, sitting in the kitchen, looking up to the moon. One day, after five decades of this, after his children had grown, his wife passed on, the tenant stepped into the kitchen, looking to the ghost in his kitchen, frowning. "Hey, why you keep comin' round?"

The spirit looked at him, his remaining eye blinked slowly. "I'm waiting."

"Waiting for who?"

"For my little incubus." He said, looking up to the moon. "The spell went wrong, couldn't bring him over to my side." He said frowning, reaching a hand up to touch the glass. "But I know he's here."

"That little blonde boy? He comes. Once every ten years." The man said, swallowing. The spirit's eyes widened, as he turned to stare at the old man. "Yeah."

His remaining eye softened and he swallowed. "So he's not... he's really...." He shook his head, before looking to him, and standing, stepping over to look down to the elderly man, then pass through him, stepping out the front door, looking over to the old man. "Tell my incubus, to touch the moon. I'll be waiting." He said, before he faded with the rising sun.

The man could only shake his head, and turn to step away.

The man had a fatal heart attack two years later and the house was demolished for an apartment building. Decades passed. Centuries passed.

And still Xigbar sat on the moon, looking down to earth longingly, waiting for the day his Roxas would come.

But he never came.

**xXx**

All music and works are done by the brilliant Akira Yamaoka, who is the creator of all the music to the Silent hill series, (Silent Hill 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and the Movie) and his brilliance is what keeps me motivated to constantly dip into the dark and insane side of my brain. Rawr.

**SONG/ALBUM  
**Tender Sugar/SH4: The Room OST  
Innocent Moon/SH3: OST  
The Last Mariachi/SH4: The Room OST  
Fortunate Sleep – No One Disturb/SH4: The Room OST  
A World Of Madness/SH2: OST  
Melancholy Requiem/SH4: The Room OST  
Laura Play The Piano/SH2: OST  
Forest/SH2: OST  
Magdalene/SH2: OST  
True/SH2: OST  
Never Forgive Me, Never Forget/SH3: OST  
Theme Of Laura (Reprise)/SH2: OST


End file.
